Gaist Crusher Is A Major New I.P. From Capcom

Capcom are jumping aboard the cross-media project train with a brand new I.P. for the Nintendo 3DS. Gaist Crusher is a “custom armour action” game with a focus on armours, transformations and collecting. The publisher released a debut trailer for the game today, and you can watch it below:

The Gaist Crusher project will span games, manga, anime, music and toys, and is part of a major Capcom project to develop content suitable for school kids. Since the number of children in Japan is declining, Capcom plan to establish Gaist Crusher as a new brand for elementary age school boys and release a continuous slate of content for it.

Gaist Crusher, Capcom say, will draw on two of the company’s strengths. The first is their expertise in producing content for kids, which they gained from developing the Mega Man games. The second is their experience with multiplayer games from the Monster Hunter series.

Gaist Crusher will have manga series running in Shueisha’s V Jump and Saikyou Jump magazines, and an anime series produced by Pierrot Co., Ltd. This mixed media strategy is something other Japanese publishers have been pursuing of late, too. Level 5 with Inazuma Eleven and The Little Battlers, Marvelous AQL with KAIO: King of Pirates, and Square Enix with Gyrozetter.

Gaist Crusher is slated for release in Winter 2013 for the Nintendo 3DS.

As a long time kids show/franchise fan, I approve of this new IP! Looks really colorful and fun to play. I also like how Capcom wants to do more younger target oriented stuff again, loved the Megaman Battle Network/Starforce games~

Chogokin

Agreed, I hope they bring back BN in some form, but this will help with the wait.

ShadowDivz

The Gaist Crusher project will span games, manga, anime, music and toys, and is part of a major Capcom project to develop content suitable for school kids. Since the number of children in Japan is declining

….Im not following the logic here.

puchinri

That part did seem awkward. Maybe they’re expecting to cater to the children now and have it as something that grows with them though?

ShadowDivz

Ahh. Like pokemon.
But with declining birth rate. It just doesn’t seem logical.

puchinri

That’s what I’m guessing they mean (it seems most reasonable).
I agree though. It just seems odd.

Considering some of Capcom’s other offerings as of late, it is quite nice to see something like this (a bright and colorful action game for younger audiences). I really hope this game, and the overall Gaist Crusher franchise, does well.

MrSirFeatherFang

I wonder what Japanese elementary school boys are into right now (and if this Gaist Crusher can appeal to them). Can’t really judge it right now. Capcom are going all out with this, so let’s hope it doesn’t bomb lol

puchinri

It’d probably be a bit easy to find out, but it’s hard to say off the top of my head (it also depends on what they’re enjoying, versus what stuff is actively being catered to them).

I can’t help to think this is gonna be E.X. troopers all over again :/

puchinri

I was just thinking too, with the emphasis on being bright and colorful and fun, it does feel a lot like E.X. Troopers. I’m glad they’re still going for that type of stuff, and maybe trying to aim this at a younger crowd and really focus in on that will help them this time around, but it is a bit worrisome.

E.X. Troopers was different because it was an anime-esque game being targeted at the shooter market (or vice-versa). To make a somewhat odd comparison, it was like trying to sell a Tales game to the Call of Duty audience. It was a very interesting idea, but ultimately not a very focused one in terms of perceived audience.

This is much more focused in that it’s a straight shounen manga type game with mechs and monsters and merchandise to tie into those things.

Well Marvelous AQL hasn’t revealed much on the KAIO IP, and I’m not sure how well SE is doing with their Gyrozetter property, so the only real framed of reference I can guess is from L-5 and Inazuma Eleven and Little Battlers. This looks like it has potential, but will Cap com just copy from other’s way to success or strike out on their own path?

Tylor Boreas Makimoto

Come on Cap, bring it over. We have plenty of children over here!
…Oh wait.

Mrgrgr and Unacceptable World

Another multimedia franchise is born here lol.^_^ With Youkai Watch coming soon from L-5, Gyrozetter still running(I believe it is not doing really well currently.) I think this IP will be able to do well.

& hey, new IP means new characters that can appear in future crossovers.

Ni

power stone+saint seiya+ronin warriors+monster hunter+mega man…and it looks awesome to play

Staffan Blonde

I in all honestly thought the guy on the cover was Kouga from Saint Seiya Omega. I figured it was some kind of crossover game since it didn’t have saint seiya in it’s title. It’s ridiculous how similar he looks like him on the thumb nail for the article.

When I got to the school age “boy” part, I kind of deflated. They couldn’t appeal to boys and girls? (Also, have they not seen what kind of money PreCure makes for Toei? Hello! Get in there and start making the moolah, Capcom!)

Some of the designs are a little tacky (and a little too close to Saint Seiya, though maybe intentionally), but it does look fun~.

Göran Isacson

You know, that reminds me that I’d be really interested to see which audience nets PreCure the most cash- the little girls, or the grown up otaku.

Depending on your answer to that question, it may go some way to explain the reason this is an all sausage-club game. If it’s the otaku-crowd: then Capcom knows that making it about girls will only draw an existing crowd, and if they want to cultivate a NEW audience with an action game then they need to appeal directly to what they think will be the least risky audience: young boys.
If it’s girls that makes the most money: wasn’t the last PreCure game a dance simulator? Hence one could come to the conclusion that the PreCure audience wouldn’t be interested in action games, and Capcom wants to stick to their action game roots and decide to just try and carve out a new audience. Of course, it could simply be the case that nobody has tried to make a Pre-Cure esque action game and it COULD be a gold-mine in the waiting, but this economy and risks…

And thirdly, they COULD of course include BOTH boys AND girl-characters, just like they do in REGULAR monster hunter and target both genders as their audience but that might not work because…

Because…

Because effort in designing armors for both genders or something? idk, maybe it’s just Capcom being Capcom.

puchinri

I really believe it’s the little girls. Between all of us of the older crowd (the ladies and guys), we do buy a lot, but I can easily see how the target audience nets them the most. Of course, I can’t say for certain (I don’t think? Toei might have info on that), but I think given the way the merchandise is handled and such, the little girls definitely are the higher portion.

I think the problem with the answer as for the otaku part is. . . technically, a lot of stuff kind of is already aimed at boys. I mean, Toei makes money off of PreCure because they know little girls will want that stuff and their parents will buy it and take them to the movies (which do seem to also bring in overwhelmingly younger audiences), but they do still have the toys and merch for KR, Sentai stuff and other shounen series for boys (and One Piece they market pretty well to all groups on the merch front).

There’s also the problem to me. . . Toei is being really cheap. I think they do a good job merch-wise as far as quality goes, but they always do try to play it safe. We know female audiences enjoy a variety of genres, and that goes for younger and older female audiences (and we’ve seen that addressed and spoken on a lot more lately by different folks/devs), but I don’t think many people actually bother to try and market these types of things to them. The little girls clearly like action and giant attacks and such, so to me, it’s lazy of Toei to not have tried a more action-oriented title already (but we know that the gaming industry has problems, notions and worries – legit to a point, but c’mon).

That’s my thing with it though. They really could have just added a female character or two and either make it flow the same, or give them a more magical girl flair, and they would have expanded their audience (even if just a little bit). We know that little girls will buy comics, merch and go watch the movies when they come out, it’s just about whether or not someone will say, “hey, this is (also) for you!” and I think Capcom really missed that chance here. If anything, they could at least made the option of it and it might have garnered enough attention from girls for it to slowly become a thing with them.

Göran Isacson

Indeed. One can hope that if this becomes a hit the next game can include girl characters, like every other hunting game out there, if only so that you have the choice.

I actually raised an eyebrow at that, too. I understand Capcom want something stable and the shounen market is a fairly safe playground to experiment in, but yeah, it really wouldn’t kill them to branch out a little more. They’ve done stuff with Ace Attorney and Sengoku Basara to appeal to women, but there’s still a long way to go before they really start reaching out to the female audience.

puchinri

Yeah, that’s my main thing. They could have played it safe enough without losing the focus of the shounen market (because the magical girl market always has been pretty profitable in Japan, at least for Toei – well, Italy too).

Good point too~! They know how to appeal to older female audiences, at least. Even there, I don’t think they’re really trying to cater to target the female audiences (or do they more so now with the Ace Attorney stuff than before?), but it’s clear that they have the attention, so they could try harder.

I suppose the disappointing part is, they could just do a game entirely aimed at little girls/female audiences that uses action (and maybe life sim aspects, given AC and also Fantasy Life and its marketing), but I have the strongest feeling that they never will, so it’s a loss if they don’t even bother in cases like this.

I suppose the disappointing part is, they could just do a game entirely aimed at little girls/female audiences that uses action (and maybe life sim aspects, given AC and also Fantasy Life and its marketing), but I have the strongest feeling that they never will, so it’s a loss if they don’t even bother in cases like this.

It takes balls to do something like that. Sadly, I think Nintendo are the only company that will ever really try reaching out specifically to women with something other than your typical “otome” visual novel-style games. Level 5 tried with Girls RPG, but that was such a magnificent disaster, I doubt they’ll ever try again (even if it was largely their fault)…

Edit: Oh wait, I forgot Layton was meant for women, too. But yeah, I think that can be safely classified as a visual novel-esque game, too, so…

puchinri

It really would and does (and to a point, I don’t blame anyone for not having them because of how well convinced they are about the sales – or the expectations of what they’d be, at least).

The funny thing to me about L-5 is, they cater and market to female audiences in interesting ways (at least in Japan) and create fun, well-rounded female characters when they want and can be very equal, so I really feel like Girls RPG was them trying to play it too safe as well (amongst other things). I agree though. I can’t see Nintendo trying to actively target and cater to female audiences (mainly) soon, but I feel they’d be the ones to try, especially now that Iwata really sees how powerfully they can market to and appeal to them (and that plenty of these people grow up with their titles and stick with them).

I’d say Style Savvy is actually a pretty big game for them. The first one sold over a million, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the 3DS game doesn’t reach at least well above 500k by the time all is said and done. And they’ve been talking about how large the female audience for Animal Crossing is, too, so I guess that’s another one.

Actually, you know what we haven’t considered? Harvest Moon and Rune Factory! Both of those try very hard to cater to women, and we have MAQL on record saying that their female fanbase for both games is pretty large.

puchinri

Oh, goodness. I am really ashamed. I was just playing it yesterday but forgot about it completely. You’re right, and I agree. I’m actually impressed by how big of a title it is for them (I feel, anyway). And definitely agreed on AC (which is another reason I feel Iwata is really coming to udnerstand how large and strong Ninty’s fanbase is and and be).

That’s quite true! Even though it took them longer (and a harder time) to reflect that with RF (which I think was entirely Neverland, of course), that is very true~.

Personally, I am glad we have titles like this and it’s refreshing to be able to recall titles that do cater and aim at the female audiences, though I hope more companies will be more daring about the kind of things they do aim at the female audience (not scared to aim action-oriented titles at them – or rely on the life-sim stuff only to bring in female audiences).

Yeah, the only “action game” I can think of that caters to women is that Hakuouki game for PSP, which Aksys is bringing over. Other than that, it’s slim pickings…

puchinri

Yeah, pretty much, heh. I feel like there is an obscure one I’m forgetting, but that I can’t remember it (supposing it exists) is pretty telling, lol.

Solomon_Kano

Well, there’s Basara. Not exactly like the Hakuouki actioner, though it ended up being big with women.

Edit: of course, you mentioned it further up! Guess that’s what I get for starting from the end of a conversation and reading up lol.

CometK

I’m trepidatiously excited for megaman-saint seiya. It’s kind of worrisome to see capcom but all their eggs into one basket with an entire media gauntlet of anime, games, toys, etc. though. The last few times they’re done so it only resulted in a lack luster product that didn’t sell as well as they thought (i.e. the latest street fighter spin-offs and resident evil 6)

EDIT: Changed “street fighter” to “street fighter spin-offs”, and RE5 to 6, both due to my incompetence. Whoops. Thanks Ishaan.

SF X TK and RE6 are the ones that underperformed and both for different, very complex reasons.

Luna Kazemaru

SFxT failed for the fact the game was broken and somethings capcom promised where not in to the game. Keep in mind most people had and idea if they wanted it or not do to cross assault

Reki Honoo

I honestly hope this game gets localized for north america.

Göran Isacson

Huh. I did like Gyrozetter, and this weird Kamen Rider/Saint Seya/Monster Hunter combination CAN turn into something pretty interesting, but I shall have to wait and see if it ever turns into something out in the west.

Jesse Torres

Im not a child, but this actually appeals to me as a fun game.

Exkaiser

Looks pretty sweet.

Vash bane

wow the article it self just explained every thing I was thinking lol

Vash bane

sorry to triple post but…those paragraphs down below X.X

eliel

kinda gives me the impressions of of guardian heroes advance but as a 3d brawler, looks fun :D

Video game stories from other sites on the web. These links leave Siliconera.